I have been enjoying this series for the most part. When the series focused on Woodbury and the rise of the Governor, it was at about the same time as I was watching the Walking Dead on TV and the Governor was the talk of the Walking Dead fandom.

The series has moved on, surprisingly not so far from Woodbury but the focus has shifted around the trials and tribulations of a woman named Lilly Caul. And it has stayed with Lilly for a while. And it’s dragging on, with no mercy, and it continues with this installment in the series.

This story took a long time to get where it had to get to and it was rather tiresome to read. I almost want to say that this is the most boring book in the whole series, in all of Walking Dead content produced anywhere, but I can’t really say that because I haven’t read it all, but I don’t think I am far off.

The long and short of this story is a mad group of mercenaries who are “working” for a crazy mad chemist kidnap all of Woodbury’s children. “Mother” Lilly is so freaking pissed off about this she goes on a murderous revenge spree in a “get the kids back at all cost” mission.

Well, after much of Lilly’s group is decimated, she’s cornered by the mercenaries, surrounded by Walkers, oh yeah and the mercenaries are all juiced on a drug called NightShade – who would have thought that major drug addiction and drug abuse still exist in the zombie apocalypse? The mercenaries capture her and her ragtag group.

The shorter version of the rest of the story is this: Lilly and Tommy Dupree find and rescue the kids, get caught, Lilly trades herself and her supposedly “pure blood” for the kid’s freedom. The mad chemist harvests Lilly’s blood for six months claiming it’s what he needs for “the cure” but during that time an incursion in the mad chemist’s compound (an abandoned hospital) takes place. Walkers overrun the entire hospital. Lilly escapes with the mad chemist. Chaos ensues. The mad chemist turns out to be exactly that, mad and delusional. He betrays Lilly and she discovers there is no cure, just one old, crazy mad motherfucker who’s going to die from an infected bite and then attack and eat Lilly to produce the “cure.” Lilly miraculously escapes this madness, finds a message Tommy left for her, heads to her old apartment in a Walker infested city and is rescued and brought back to Tommy.

Where we leave off is in a Swedish owned, huge department store that has gone untouched (not believable) for all these years post-plague. Now the conundrum is, stay in this H&M like paradise with plenty of food, water, electric, supplies, etc. or go back to Woodbury?

As is what has become traditional and commonplace in the Walking Dead universe, another group of survivors has emerged, and we are left off there, waiting to see what happens next.
The problem is I’m not sure I care what happens next. This short review of the events explains the story that was dragged out over 304 pages (at least in the Kindle edition). It was a long way to get to dodge.